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Gender Pay Gap Report 2018

Thistle Seafoods Ltd

Gender Pay Gap Report 2018

Introduction

All UK organisations with over 250 employees are now required by law to carry out annual Gender Pay Reporting under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. The report details a Company’s Gender Pay and Bonus Gaps; the percentage of men and women receiving a bonus; and the proportions of men and women in each pay quartile of the workforce.

An employer must publish six calculations showing their:

Average gender pay gap as a mean average.

Average gender pay gap as a median average.

Average bonus gender pay gap as a mean average.

Average bonus gender pay gap as a median average.

Proportion of males receiving a bonus payment and proportion of females receiving a bonus payment.

Proportion of males and females when divided into four groups ordered from lowest to highest pay.

These calculations are based on figures drawn from a specific date each year. This is called the ‘snapshot date’. The snapshot date for businesses and charities is the 5th April.

It is important to know that the Gender Pay Gap is not the same as Equal Pay, and it exists in most organisations.

Equal Pay means that men and women performing equal work should generally receive equal pay.

Gender Pay Gap is the difference between men’s and women’s average hourly pay across an organisation, expressed as a percentage, and it is reported as a mean average and median average (mid-point) figure.

Some of the reported reasons for why a Gender Pay Gap exists are as follows:

Women are often under-represented in senior roles where remuneration is higher.

Women are more likely to take time out of their careers to start a family or have carer responsibilities; the gap typically widens when women reach the age of 40.

Some sectors have a higher proportion of part-time roles e.g. health, retail and social care, commonly resulting in a higher proportion of women in entry level roles.

Educational choices where fewer women work in STEM sectors – science, technology, engineering and mathematics, leading to fewer women in higher-paid specialist roles such as Finance, IT, Engineering and Logistics.

Our 2018 Reported Figures

Thistle Seafoods

2017

Thistle Seafoods

2018

Manufacturing Food Products

2017 Revised*

Manufacturing Food Products

2018 Provisional*

Mean

Gap

10.8%

14.5%

14.0%

12.0%

Median

Gap

0%

2.1%

17.1%

12.3%

* Based on estimates from the National Office of Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2017 Revised and 2018 Provisional

Upper Quartile

Upper Middle Quartile

Lower Middle Quartile

Lower Quartile

Male 93%

Male 52%

Male 50%

Male 50%

Female 7%

Female 48%

Female 50%

Female 50%

Portion of Men and Women Who Received a Bonus

Male 0%

Female 0%

Average Bonus Gender Pay Gap

Mean Bonus Pay Gap 0%

Median Bonus Pay Gap 0%

Understanding our Gender Pay Gap

On the 5th April 2018 Thistle Seafoods employed 403 members of staff, 247 were male and 156 were female. All worked full time.

As per our 2017 Gender Pay Gap Report, the gap in our mean and upper quartile statistics is driven by three departments - engineering, hygiene and stores. All of our employees within these departments are male, with the expectation of two females who work as stores assistants. The pay rate for a stores assistant is not within the upper quartile. Market rates determine the rate of pay for our engineering department and our forklift drivers, and all of our members of staff within the hygiene department receive a nightshift allowance within their hourly rate, due to their regular hours of work being during the ‘night period’.

The reason for the increase in the mean gap from 10.8% to 14.5% is due to a change in the shifts that these departments work. They have moved from working a two or three shift pattern to a four on four off shift pattern. A four on four off shift pattern is where four consecutive shifts of 12 hours per day is worked followed by four consecutive days off. This allows cover to be provided 24 hours per day, seven days per week. However, the manning levels for running such a shift pattern is far greater than the amount required to run a two or three shift pattern.

On the 10th April 2017 part of the Hygiene Department moved from working five nights a week to a four on four off shift pattern. As only part of the department transferred to the new shift, only two additional positions were required, both of which were a hygiene chargehand. On the 22nd May 2017 the forklift drivers in the stores department moved to a four on four off shift pattern and this required an additional 11 forklift driver positions to be created. The same shift pattern was introduced to the engineering department on the 19th July 2017 and this created two additional engineering team leader positions, two deputy engineer team leader positions and six shift maintenance engineer positions. The hourly rate for all these roles, within these departments, fall within the upper quartile.

The above chart shows that 82% of our staff in the upper quartile work within the engineering, stores or hygiene departments. Analysing the remaining 18% shows that out of the 18 members of staff, 11 are male and 7 are female, giving an adjusted upper quartile gap of 61% male and 39% female.

The increase in the staffing levels of these departments has also caused the median gap to increase from 0% to 2.1%. The median is considered to be a more accurate representative figure, as the mean can be skewed by a handful of highly paid employees, as outlined above. The median gap is the difference between the employee in the middle of the range of male wages and the employee in middle of the range of female wages. If these departments were omitted the median would still be 0%.

The results of the upper middle quartile indicates an almost even split between males and females, with our lower middle and lower quartiles being exactly equal.

Thistle Seafoods does not pay bonuses therefore there is no discrepancy between the number of male and females who receive a bonus, and there is no mean and median average of the bonus gender pay gap.

Our Progress

Thistle Seafoods believes the opportunity to progress is extremely important to both employees and the Company. We continue to advertise all vacancies internally, we encourage all suitable candidates to apply and we take all candidates through the same selection process. In addition, we have introduced an annual performance management review which documents an employee’s strengths and areas to work on and provides them with the opportunity to set goals for the coming year. We also continue to use our Thistle Heroes scheme.

Closing the Gap Further

The issues within our Gender Pay Gap are due to our engineering, stores and hygiene departments. As previously noted fewer females work in STEM sectors, and this can explain our skewed figures. Evidence that supports this comes from our 2017 and 2018 engineering apprenticeship recruitment campaigns. In 2017, 97 candidates applied and five were female. In 2018, 96 candidates applied and two were female. In 2018, one female was invited to the first stage of the selection process, however, she failed to attend and the other female candidate had no suitable or relevant qualifications and was not invited to participate in the selection process. We continue to advertise engineering vacancies, however, we have yet to receive an application from a female candidate. The same applies to any hygiene or stores department vacancies we have advertised.

Thistle Seafoods will continue to consider all applicants equally and will continue to employ the candidate most suitable for the role. Furthermore, we will continue to aid the development and progression of all our staff to allow both male and female employees the same opportunities.

Approval for this statement

This statement was approved by the Board of Directors on 3rd April 2019.